DIY Cocktail Napkins

Have you ever gone to cocktail hour at a swanky hotel bar, or at a friend’s place had them hand you some cute linen napkins with tongue-in-cheek stitching or wording? What about an adorable chinoiserie design, or even a monogram? Would you DIY Cocktail Napkins yourself?

image from horchow.com

image from anthropology.com

Adorable online boutiques are full of adorable little collections of napkins, but the price tags can be a turn off. If you’re in the market to buy some, Waiting on Martha has the cutest ones by far, otherwise some really cute ones on Etsy can be customized.

I spent a little bit of time at our local fabric store over the weekend and fell in love with some beautiful and colourful trim. But what to use it on?! I couldn’t just line our curtains with it! It was too expensive to buy 20 meters of it (to do 2 sides of the curtains in the dining and siting room). After stumbling across some purple gingham in the bulk fabric section, it hit me – DIY cocktail napkins! I could make them to get exactly what I wanted, I could use the funky trim, and I could save myself a couple of bucks.

Most cocktail napkins are a 6″ square, and I wanted to add the fun coloured trim along two sides of each napkin. I was having a hard time deciding between blue, yellow/gold, red and purple for the trim, but with purple gingham I decided the blue and yellow/gold would be perfect for continued use into the fall and winter.

Because the fabric I was using would fray at the ends if left un-hemmed, I started by cutting an 8″ square and then folding in an inch around the entire edge. I then pinned it before sewing it with a machine.

To keep the look common and avoid the fraying, I sewed each side closest to the lip, that way I would have a nice stitch line one inch into the square. See that nice little white stitch?

Because of the delicate trim, I had to hand sew it but I think it was well worth it. The final product is just what I wanted, and will be put to good use very soon.

Who’s coming for a cocktail this week? I’ve got the bar and the diy cocktail napkins, you have to bring an app!